Alex Yoong Brands Hatch Race Report

Alex Yoong on his way to his first F3 podium second at Brands Hatch. 25th
April 1999.
ALEX YOONG HITS FORM WITH SECOND AND FIFTH
London - Sunday April 25th 1999 - Alex Yoong put in two sensational
performances today with a second and a fifth...

Alex Yoong on his way to his first F3 podium second at Brands Hatch. 25th
April 1999.

ALEX YOONG HITS FORM WITH SECOND AND FIFTH

London - Sunday April 25th 1999 - Alex Yoong put in two sensational
performances today with a second and a fifth in rd. 5 and 4 respectively
of the 1999 British Formula 3 Championship at the Brands Hatch circuit,
signalling to the world that he has finally arrived at the edge of the
status of world class drivers.

Earlier in round 4 at mid-day, Alex had from fifth on the grid made a
perfect start to draw himself side by side with third on the grid Briton,
Matthew Davies. But a questionable move by Davies who jinked left made
contact with Alex's car and this forced Alex off the track and made
contact with the barriers.

Alex wrestled with the car to get back onto the track to rejoin in 11th
spot. He then did what was deemed impossible at the difficult to overtake
Brands Hatch circuit to carve his way up the field into fifth spot by the
end of the 25 lap race.

His most audacious move was at the last lap when he drove round the
outside of Michael Bentwood at Surtees bend to grab fifth and 10 points
for the championship.

Round 5 saw Alex again making his now regular perfect start from third on
the grid to take second man Luciano Burti of Brazil into turn 1. He then
set off chasing pole sitter Narain Karthikeyan of India but could not make
any move to pass as Karthikeyan defended well.

Alex then concentrated on preserving his second spot from the charging
Luciano Burti who himself was under threat from the train of cars behind
him.

The faultless drive to second in round 5 earned Alex 15 championship
points to vault him from 10th to 6th in the standings after only 3 out of
5 races participated by him. The sixth, in round 3, a fifth and a second
today earned him a total of 31 championship points.

" This weekend's results clearly gave me what I wanted and show what the
team is capable of. We only had two days of testing and one race coming to
this race weekend compared with the other teams which had more than 10
days of testing and 3 races behind them and we are already up there with
them. We are going to get stronger and a race win is now very near." Alex
summed up for the Alan Docking Racing team.

Round 4 was won by Luciano Burti of Brazil and round 5 by Narain
Karthikeyan of India to signal an Asian insurgency in world class
motorsports. Both Alex and Narain were the products of Formula Asia in the
mid 1990s, Asia's first ever single seater series started by Alex's father
Hanifah Yoong Abdullah in 1993.

Alex and the Racing for Malaysia project are sponsored by the Ministry of
Youth and Sports, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Pan Global Insurance,
RoadAssist, ADR, Proton, Neuronet, and Malaysia Airlines. Round 6 will be
held in the Oulton Park circuit on the 2nd of April 1999.